Academic literature on the topic 'Tamil Canadians – Ontario – Toronto'

This paper examines the experiences of immigrants in Toronto as they pass through, and leave, Ontario Works (OW), a ‘Work First’ approach to social assistance that prioritizes rapid labour force attachment. We examine the Ontario Works activities of immigrants, compared to native born Canadians, and their respective post-OW job characteristics. We find that immigrants experience a significant relative wage disadvantage after participation, and substantially less wage growth when moving to the second post-welfare job. We conclude that Ontario Works, like most ‘work first’ employment programs, is ill-suited to addressing earnings disadvantage among immigrants. We suggest that programs ‘beyond work first’, though not targeted specifically towards immigrants, might nevertheless offer more assistance. The recurring wage disadvantage, however, would remain unaddressed and might require more direct intervention.

Blissymbolics, a comprehensive core communication system through which non-speaking people are able to communicate, has been developed and made available throughout Canada and the world by the Blissymbolics Communication Institute in Toronto, Canada. In addition, Canadian users of the system have become leaders in helping to increase universal awareness of the intellectual, social, emotional and communication needs of communicatively impaired and disadvantaged people.Charles K. Bliss who was born in Australia and now resides in Australia, originally developed Blissymbolics between 1942 and 1965 as an international communication system to promote better understanding among people. The system was first successfully applied during the early 1970’s by a multidisciplinary group of specialists at the Ontario Crippled Children’s Centre in Toronto to cerebral palsied, school-aged, non-speaking children. This graphic and meaning-based system provided them with a means of more grammatically complete communication than picture or word boards.Since its first application, Blissymbolics has been expanded to many other applications and populations. Today it is used as an augmentative communiation system with cognitive and language development programs to support reading and pre-reading activities. Its users include people who are retarded, multiply-handicapped, autistic, aphasic and stroke victims.As experimentation and the use of Blissymbolics increased during the 1970’s, the need for training programs and instructional materials, for information about ongoing programs, for more symbols and for a structure to maintain a standard form of Blissymbols also grew. In order to meet and co-ordinate these requirements the Blissymbolics Communication Foundation was established in Toronto in 1975. The Foundation, through a licensing agreement with Mr. Bliss, obtained the exclusive mandate to co-ordinate the applications of Blissymbolics with non-speaking people around the world. Its mandate was to maintain symbol standards and to provide training and material for the increasing number of people applying the system with non-speaking people. The Foundation was re-named the Blissymbolics Communication Institute in 1978 to better represent its role as a central, co-ordinating educational organization.

Looking at political demonstrations that occurred throughout 2008 and 2009 in Toronto, this article explores popular understandings of diasporic identities within a Canadian multiculturalism framework. It also examines second-generation Sri Lankan Tamils’ (SLT) (re)negotiations of these representations in forming and informing their identities. Drawing on Kathleen Hall’s (2002) framework, identities are understood as constituted through processes of power, discourse, and representation. Through a critical discourse analysis of newspaper editorials and narrative explorations of second-generation Canadian Tamils, this article investigates how diasporic identities are incorporated into the wider Canadian polity. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with second-generation Tamil Canadians (ages nineteen to twenty-nine). I argue that popular constructions of diasporic identities and Canadian national identity as understood within a multiculturalism framework are not entirely in concurrence with Tamil diasporic minorities’ own identity narratives. The resultant “othering” causes feelings of marginalization and undermines notions of social citizenship. Concurrently, resistive practices by the second generation embodied by the political démonstrations of 2008-2009 contest “Canadian” identity as promoted in hegemonic representations by dominant elements of society, including the state. Divergences that emerge between the resistive discourses of second-generation Tamils and “mainstream” integrationist discourses demonstrate the need for a more sophisticated conceptualization of how Canadian multiculturalism and citizenship might incorporate the transnational political and cultural practices of its citizens.

Calling Power to Account: Law, Reparations, and the Chinese Head Tax Case, David Dyzenhaus and May Moran, eds., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005, pp. 471.This is a collection of fifteen essays that addresses different aspects of the Chinese head tax case. Edited by two law professors and written mostly by lawyers and law professors, the collection has a strong legal flavour. The book begins with the legal case of Mack vs. Attorney General of Canada. However, the book does not provide a succinct summary of the case. In brief, the case involves three Chinese Canadians, Shack Jang Mack, Quen Ying Lee and Yew Lee, filing a statement of claim through their attorney in December, 2000, in a class action on behalf of head tax payers in the Ontario Superior Court. In all, the case went through three courts, and the original ruling dismissing the claim of head tax payers was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Canadian schools introduced community service program in 1999 to engage youth in diverse communities of Canada. Many studies have identified the gap in understanding immigrant youths’ experience on mandatory community service but has yet to study immigrant youth’s experience. Therefore, this paper explores the experiences of young Nepalese Canadians aged 18- 24 who participated in mandatory community involvement for graduating from high schools in Ontario, Canada. The findings are based on qualitative data gathered from ten interviews with young Nepalese Canadians who went to Canadian high schools, and are currently living in the Greater Toronto area (GTA). The study provides a nuanced understanding of visible minority immigrant youth’s experiences of mandatory community service in high school. The findings suggest that participants experience the program as merely an obligatory requirement to graduate from high school rather than a platform for learning civic skills and engaging in diverse Canadian communities. In addition, this case study of Nepalese Canadian youth depicts how young Nepalese Canadians depend on informal sources, mainly peer-to-peer sharing, for engaging in community, and illustrates how they conceptualize what community involvement means to them. Finally, based on this study, we argue that amendment to this mandatory program is an urgent call for engaging visible minority immigrant youth civically and meaningfully in Canadian communities.

According to the Canadian Emergencies act, a national emergency is an urgent, critical situation that threatens the health and safety of Canadians (Department of Justice of Canada, 2022). Emergencies can also take on many forms: pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, or armed conflict. Currently, the Provincial Emergency Response Plan implemented by the Chief of Emergency Management Ontario is the framework that keeps Ontarians safe, allowing for organizations and municipalities to organize disaster relief, send out emergency alerts, and educate Ontario residents on emergency preparedness (PERP, 2019). This paper explores how serious games can prepare the public for emergencies based on response frameworks currently in use in metropolitan Ontario, Canada (cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton). This example was selected because it represents modern urban settings that require response plans and provides a framework that can be used to elaborate on. This paper will present the positive features of serious game applications concerning public safety and emergency management education. Case studies of serious game applications currently used for public health and safety purposes will be examined. Serious games may be a useful instrument for public safety education to enhance existing emergency preparedness and public safety education frameworks.

Purpose This paper aims to present a panel data econometric model of the main determinants of house prices in the ten largest census metropolitan areas (CMA) in Ontario, Canada, for the years 2001, 2006 and 2011. The impact of immigration on the housing market in Canada is little researched; however, immigration plays an important role into the economy of Canada. According to Statistics Canada, not only is immigration key to Canada’s population growth but also without immigration, in the next 20 years, Canada’s population growth will be zero. The motivation for this study is the bursting of housing bubbles in some developed countries (e.g. USA). The authors analyze variables that are related to the immigration policy in Canada, accounting also for the impact of the interest rate, income, unemployment, household size and housing supply to analyze housing price determinants. The study investigates the magnitude of the impact of the top three leading categories of immigrants to Canada, namely, Chinese, Indian and Filipino, on the housing prices in Ontario’s largest cities. The results show the main factors that explain home prices over time that are interest rate, immigration, unemployment rate, household size and income. Over the 10-year period from 2001 to 2011, immigration grew by 400 per cent in Toronto CMA, the largest receiving area in Ontario, while the nonimmigrant population grew by 14 per cent. For Toronto CMA, immigrants, income, unemployment rate and interest rate explain the CA$158,875 average home price increase over the 2001-2011 time period. Out of this, the three categories of immigrants’ share of total home price increase is 54.57 per cent, with the corresponding interest rate share 58.60 per cent and income share 11.32 per cent of the total price growth. Unemployment rate contributes negatively to the housing price and its share of the total price increase is 24.49 per cent. Design/methodology/approach The framework for the empirical analysis applies the hedonic pricing model theory to housing sales prices for the ten largest CMAs in Ontario over the years 2001-2011. Following Akbari and Aydede (2012) and O’Meara (2015), market clearing in the housing market results in the housing price as a function of several housing attributes. The authors selected the housing attributes based on data availability for the Canadian Census years of 2001, 2006 and 2011 and the variables that have been most used in the literature. The model has the average housing prices as the dependent variable, and the independent variables are: immigrants per dwelling (Chinese, Indian, and Filipino), unemployment rate, average employment income, household size, housing supply and the interest rate. To capture the relative scarcity of dwellings, the independent variable immigrants per dwelling was used. Findings This study seems to suggest that one cause of high prices in Ontario is large inflows of immigrants together with low mortgage interest rate. The authors focused their attention on Toronto CMA, as it is the main destination of immigrants and comprises the largest cities, including Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton and Oakville. Looking over the 10-year period from 2001 to 2011, the authors can see the factors that impact the home prices in Toronto CMA: immigration, unemployment rate, household size, interest rate and income. Over the period of 10 years from 2001 to 2011, immigrants’ group from China, India and the Philippines account for CA$86,701 increase in the home price (54.57 per cent share of the total increase). Income accounts for CA$17,986 increase in the home price (11.32 per cent share); interest rate accounts for CA$93,103 of the average home price increase in Toronto CMA (58.60 per cent share); and unemployment rate accounts for CA$38,916 decrease in the Toronto average home prices (24.49 per cent share). Household size remain stable over time in Toronto (2.8 average household size) and does not have a contribution to home price change. All these four factors, interest rate, immigrants, unemployment rate and income, together explain CA$158,875 increase in home prices in Toronto CMA between 2001 and 2011. Practical implications The housing market price analysis may be more complex, and there may be factors impacting the housing prices extending beyond immigration, interest rate, income and household size. Finally, the results of this paper can be extended to include the most recent census data for the year 2016 to reflect more accurately the price situation in the housing market for Ontario cities. Social implications The fact that currently, in 2017, the young working population cannot afford buying a property in the Toronto CMA area means there is a problem with this market and a corresponding decrease in the quality of life. According to The Globe and Mail (July 2017), a new pool in 2017 suggested that two in five Canadians believe housing in this country is not affordable for them. Further, 38 per cent of respondents who consider themselves middle or upper class believe in no affordability of housing. The Trudeau Government promised Canadians a national housing strategy for affordable housing. Designing a national housing strategy may be challenging because it has to account for the differential income ranges across regions. Municipal leaders are asking the government to prioritize repair and construct new affordable housing. Another reason discussed in the media of the unaffordability of housing in Toronto and Vancouver is foreign buyers. The Canadian Government recently implemented a tax measure on what it may seem the housing bubble problem: foreign buyers. Following Vancouver, in April 2017, Ontario Government imposed a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents. This tax is levied on houses purchased in the area stretching from Niagara Region and Greater Toronto to Peterborough. Originality/value Few studies use Canadian data to explain house prices and analyze the effect of immigration on housing prices. There is not much research on the effect of the immigrants and immigrants’ ethnicity (e.g., Chinese, Indian and Filipino immigrants), on the housing prices in Canada cities. This study investigates the impact of the most prevalent immigrant races (e.g., from China, India and the Philippines) on housing prices, using data for Canadian major cities in Ontario within a panel data econometric framework. This paper fills this gap and contributes to the literature, which analyzes the determinants of housing prices based on a panel of cities in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Every year thousands of Canadians are killed or injured because of medical mistakes. Plaintiffs, however, face several challenges to suing doctors successfully for malpractice. One challenge is the reluctance of some doctors to criticize other medical professionals, sometimes referred to as the “conspiracy of silence.” This article focuses on the attention given to the conspiracy of silence in Ontario in the 1960s when Dr. Morton Shulman, the pugnacious and flamboyant Chief Coroner of Toronto, alleged that doctors routinely covered up medical errors. Shulman drew media attention to irresponsible doctors, poor practice, and negligent treatment. He demanded more accountability and better care, and deplored efforts to silence him to protect the reputation of doctors. A decline in public trust of experts and of the professions created conditions that lent credence to Shulman’s claims. However, many medical professionals chafed at the questioning of their professionalism, expertise, and ethics. The provincial government’s responses, which included coroner system reforms, expanding the powers of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, and attempting to silence Shulman, primarily aimed to meet the concerns of the state and medical professionals, rather than those of patients and the public.

As stories of microbiological and infectious disease discoveries are told, one of the most charming of these in Canadian history is the recognition of verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) and associated disease. The considerable burden and impact of VTEC-associated infections is currently experienced worldwide. Jack Konowalchuk, Joan Speirs, and their collaborators in Ottawa, Ontario, defined the E. coli verotoxin. Mohamed Karmali, Martin Petric, and colleagues at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, established the association of VTEC and hemolytic–uremic syndrome. Nationwide, and with the dissemination of knowledge through the central health directorate in Ottawa, numerous scientists and clinicians were motivated to focus on this theme, and within a relatively brief chronology, much became known about the biology of VTEC and the pathogenesis, epidemiology, and clinical aspects of disease. Many Canadian investigators, but especially those in the veterinary school at Guelph, Ontario, also contributed to the science of VTEC among animals. The interactions between clinical and veterinary researchers led to a then unprecedented exponential growth in the knowledge base of VTEC. Canadians also participated in a better understanding of the origin and potential of the E. coli O157 serogroup. Whereas not exclusively Canadian, the contributions of our national scientists in this field must be seen as a vital part of medical and microbiological Canadiana; this essence is captured in this historical review.

Cancer clinical trials (ccts) are essential for furthering knowledge and developing effective interventions to improve the lives of people living with cancer in Canada. Randomized controlled trials are particularly important for developing evidence-based health care interventions. To produce robust and relevant research conclusions, timely and sufficient accrual to ccts is essential.The present report delivers the key recommendations emerging from a workshop meeting, Improve Accrual to Cancer Clinical Trials, that was hosted by the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The meeting, which took place in Toronto, Ontario, in April 2012 before the Canadian Cancer Trials Group annual spring meeting, brought together key stakeholders from across Canada to explore creative strategies for improving accrual to ccts. The objectives of the workshop were to provide an opportunity for knowledge exchange with respect to the research evidence and the ethics theory related to cct accrual and to promote discussion of best practices and policies related to enhancing cct access and accrual in Canada.The workshop provided the foundation for establishing new interdisciplinary research collaborations to overcome the identified barriers to cct participation in Canada. Meeting participants also supported the development of evidence-based policies and practices to make trials more accessible to Canadians living with cancer.

An exploratory, qualitative study on the experiences of Polish older adults who made a transition from independent living to an ethno-specific residential care facility in Toronto is presented. Using the framework of Continuity Theory of Aging, the impact of ethnic/cultural identity on the process of relocation and subsequent adjustment to a nursing home environment was investigated. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select 2 male and 4 female participants. The data was collected using long interviews that were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. The findings of this study indicate that the subjects employed specific coping strategies that stem from traditional value orientation and life experiences hence suggesting that ethnic/cultural identity may have played a role in their successful adaptation to residential care setting. Although this research study is limited to one group of older adults and cannot be generalized to other ethnic groups, it has a potential to contribute to increasing the body of knowledge about the dynamics of residential care placement among ethnic minority seniors. Implications for social work policy, research and practice are discussed.

This thesis is a comparative, data-based analysis of the labour market experiences of the Italian and Jewish populations of Toronto at the end of the 1970s, beginning of the 1980s. It also provides historical and empirical information on the emergence and development of ethnic enclaves, and assesses whether such distinct enclave economies constitute channels for upward mobility for the Italian and Jewish individuals who participate in them.
The historical findings provide evidence for the distinctiveness of an enclave labour market within these two ethnic communities. The empirical evidence reveals however, that participation in the enclave economies is quite low for Toronto's Jewish and Italian communities. The evidence does not indicate that participation in the enclave is associated with either economic benefits or losses. However, informal networks and ethnic ties have strong positive effects on enclavic participation.